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Nick Bevan: A renowned rowing coach who always sent crews out with clean teeth

A RENOWNED rowing coach and University Boat Race winner from North Oxfordshire has died aged 71.

Nick Bevan saw his crews win the Special Race for Schools at the Henley Royal Regatta seven times and also took a crew to victory at Westminster School’s Schools’ Head of the River Race, the National Schools Regatta near Nottingham, and the Henley Royal Regatta, all in 1982.

He was one of the first coaches to take a schoolboy crew abroad, first to Australia in 1974 and then to South Africa in 1978.

Mr Bevan, from North Aston, near Banbury, was also known for his unusual tradition of making his crews clean their teeth before getting into their boats to start a race.

Nicholas Vaughan Bevan was born in the Limes Nursing Home, Shrewsbury, on February 21, 1942, to parents David and Hilary Bevan.

He was a pupil at Shrewsbury School, where his father was a housemaster and taught for 42 years. At school he became head of his house, captain of the boxing team and was a horn player in the brass band.

It was there he also showed the first signs of his rowing prowess, when he and a crew of schoolmates won the Princess Elizabeth Cup in 1960.

After leaving Shrewsbury he studied geography at Balliol College, and was in the crew that came from behind to beat Cambridge in the 1963 Boat Race.